From Weekends of Sound: A 764-Hero Mixtape

by Joshua Young

January 2020

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When the fountain quit, you smoked too much 

& claimed I-5 was a small pin-hole just outside 

the window on the drive home. 

I wanted to get you naked, but you wanted to climb 

onto roofs & watch Seattle flicker, you wanted 

to count the places boys could hide bodies, you 

wanted to tell me about skeletons 

& all the drugs you hadn’t done yet.

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The bridge looked closer from the water.

I could smell cedar & Windex, but you kept saying, 

I smell popcorn. By the stack of tires, 

moths blanketed a body, & you helped me dig. 

We saw no coyotes, 

just dead wasps & bicycle handles. 

History made this happen. 

It was not a hoax for treasure hunters. 

We slouched in the room, reptilic, 

the guilt helping us find a map—